8 Mixing Operations

Since version 2.0, multiple distinct actions can be specified in a single
invocation of GNU Stow. For example, to update an installation of Emacs from
version 21.3 to 21.4a you can now do the following:

stow -D emacs-21.3 -S emacs-21.4a

which will replace emacs-21.3 with emacs-21.4a using a single invocation.

This is much faster and cleaner than performing two separate
invocations of stow, because redundant folding/unfolding operations
can be factored out. In addition, all the operations are calculated
and merged before being executed (see Deferred Operation), so the
amount of of time in which GNU Emacs is unavailable is minimised.